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I’ve been harshly reminded in the past few days that change is, in fact, not a choice. That is, change will happen anyway, whether we like it or not. In some minuscule way, perhaps hateful way, it’s happening right now. When left to its own devices it can be the most charming and beguiling of evil dictators, making slicing chasms right before our eyes that we are powerless to stop. Or it can be the slyest, most cruel undercover agent, out to tip over our world, causing a wave so large we can only be swept along. Least it feels ...

By John Atkinson The idea is increasingly being propagated that we live in a 'post truth' world. In this world, 'fake news' has supplanted genuine news and we can no longer believe the words of our rulers or the media that we see, hear or read. Implicit in the idea of a 'post truth' era is that this follows a 'truth' era. This would have been a mythical time when our leaders spread news to us that was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That mythical time appears to have passed me by. Perhaps others remember ...

(From grounded.systems) This is a brief introduction to the notion of a wicked problem. It is based on the highly-cited paper by Rittel and Webber (1973). The following characterise wicked problems: There is no definitive formulation. In a sense, formulating a wicked problem is the problem There are no stopping rules. The process of intervening is also the same as understanding the nature of the problem – the intervention is “good enough” or the best that can be achieved within other limitations (e.g. of time, budget…) Interventions are not right or wrong, they can only be viewed as making things ...

The Dialogue model was developed by Bill Isaacs. The model asks that we reconsider the ‘rules’ we use to manage our communication. Often the typical meeting room is full of people holding a series of conversations that come preloaded with hidden paradigms of belief, expectation and personal ambition. What this means is that the communication taking place is driven by a mixture of agendas, with everyone seeking to direct and steer the conversation in ways that withhold their point of view. This is limiting, as conversations become stalled, redirected and challenged and in these spaces creativity and exploration is unsafe ...

A beautiful example of murmuration from @NatGeo Amazing Must Watch What are the rules governing their behaviour? What can we learn about living systems and change? John Atkinson explores further in: The rules that limit us ...